Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

[Tashyboy]

Well yes…meant that about six months is the time for which the vaccines are most effective, after which they become less effective. So all us over 50s and more so over 60s vaccinated about 6 months ago will now have reducing protection. And in my friends school, and as for her, it seems to be over 50s, and 60s especially, who are going down with it.

SILH, I think the idea of the Vaccine was that it was never going to protect against the Virus. Was it not to help recognise you had the COVID earlier and help fight against it. I think the problem being the new variants of the new Omicron variant from older variants is more transmissible. Unfortunately working in a school is the perfect cooking pot for transferring the Virus. Good that you are there to help a pal. Stay safe me man.

 

[Imurg]

The NHS are back to mandatory mask wearing due to the latest wave that seems to be picking up pace...
It seems a lot of people are testing positive for a lot longer than previous varieties and whilst, seemingly, not as lethal it's making people pretty sick for longer too..
I don't want to say it but....here we go again?

 

[Fade and Die]

The NHS are back to mandatory mask wearing due to the latest wave that seems to be picking up pace...
It seems a lot of people are testing positive for a lot longer than previous varieties and whilst, seemingly, not as lethal it's making people pretty sick for longer too..
I don't want to say it but....here we go again?

Tbh they never stopped being mandatory in hospital. Visit regularly and always have to mask up.

The country has nowhere near recovered from the over reaction to the first pandemic. Hope there is no appetite for a repeat of the ridiculous lengths we went to before.

 

[Imurg]

Tbh they never stopped being mandatory in hospital. Visit regularly and always have to mask up.

The country has nowhere near recovered from the over reaction to the first pandemic. Hope there is no appetite for a repeat of the ridiculous lengths we went to before.

The mask mandate was dropped from the NHS a few weeks ago...since been upgraded to frontline staff and now all areas...

 

[upsidedown]

Back from.our hols today and HID tested positive ,suspect I'm not long behind her . This is our first taste of it ?

 

[Dando]

There’s a lot of people in my firms Bristol office that have tested positive recently

 

[AmandaJR]

The NHS are back to mandatory mask wearing due to the latest wave that seems to be picking up pace...
It seems a lot of people are testing positive for a lot longer than previous varieties and whilst, seemingly, not as lethal it's making people pretty sick for longer too..
I don't want to say it but....here we go again?

Yep. Was at Addenbrookes this week and back to mask wearing. Apart from the American woman who proclaimed she was exempt and proceeded to educate the staff on the government agreeing that masks spread pathogens.

 

[Fade and Die]

The mask mandate was dropped from the NHS a few weeks ago...since been upgraded to frontline staff and now all areas...

Really? I was at the Royal Free last Tuesday and you couldn’t get through the door without a mask. Been like that since the beginning. Maybe some hospitals never dropped it?

 

[Imurg]

Really? I was at the Royal Free last Tuesday and you couldn’t get through the door without a mask. Been like that since the beginning. Maybe some hospitals never dropped it?

Maybe..our trust dropped the masks about a month ago...back on as of Monday....

 

[AmandaJR]

Maybe..our trust dropped the masks about a month ago...back on as of Monday....

Similar here. Hinchingbrooke a few weeks ago was no mask but Addenbrookes had signs dated last week of June reinstating them.

 

[Wilson]

My daughter bought it home from school last Friday, I tested positive on Monday and my wife on Tuesday. First time I’ve had it, second time for my wife, I felt pretty terrible on Monday, but thankfully neither of us as bad as the first time my wife caught it, when she was in bed for over a week.

I spoke to a work acquaintance last week, he said I was the 3rd person that day he’d spoken to who had COvid.

 

[Ethan]

Well yes…meant that about six months is the time for which the vaccines are most effective, after which they become less effective. So all us over 50s and more so over 60s vaccinated about 6 months ago will now have reducing protection. And in my friends school, and as for her, it seems to be over 50s, and 60s especially, who are going down with it.

It takes time to build a complex cumulative immunity, like most of us have against flu. Covid is still a rather young pathogen and our immunity, especially for older people is not deep enough and broad enough. It will get there in time, but more boosters will be needed. The next stage of vaccine development is multi-talent vaccines that cover several different variants or several different structures in the virus.

In due course, most younger people ought to be fine without boosters unless a nasty variant comes along (and they will), but like flu, older people will be offered an annual booster, possibly a combo of Covid and flu.

 

[Blue in Munich]

@Ethan, have you heard anything about this (copied over from the film thread)?

On a more worrying note, a lad I work with told me this morning that his wife works at a hospital in London and they are seeing loads of patients come in with covid but are all testing negative on the lateral flow tests. He was saying that lots in the NHS now think lateral flows aren't working with the new strain. I've had this "man-flu" for a week now and it has all the symptoms of covid except the lateral flows keep coming up negative.

 

[Springveldt]

@Ethan, have you heard anything about this (copied over from the film thread)?

Don't shoot the messenger.

As I said, I've had a cough, sore throat, feeling tired/weak, headache, fuzzy head, loss of appetite etc for 8 days now. It's basically all the symptoms of when I had covid a few months ago except a fever (or a least never noticed a fever) and this time lateral flows from last Monday, Wednesday and Friday were all negative. Rest of the family are the same, I even joked on Friday to the wife when it was negative again that maybe lateral flows don't pick up the new strain. Then the lad at work mentioned that to me before I had told him of my symptoms.

 

[Ethan]

@Ethan, have you heard anything about this (copied over from the film thread)?

Haven't heard that. No mention on my doctors social media Covid forum.

How do they know people have Covid If LFT negative. PCR-positive?

The two tests measure different things over different time periods. The LFT doesn't turn positive as quickly as PCR, so early cases could be LFT- and PCR+. Symptoms? Increasingly non-specific.

Also, a lot of people do their LFTs badly, not scraping around deep enough in the snout. A few gentle whips half an inch into the nostril won't do it.

 

[spongebob59]

Wife's company, Pfizer, have re introduced face masks in site

 

[Ethan]

Wife's company, Pfizer, have re introduced face masks in site

Oh, there is going to be plenty more of that. Expect many Twitter rants and backbencher tantrums.

 

[Oddsocks]

Well it wiped me out again last week, despite three jabs I was all good and had been free since Christmas 2020.

It was definitely worse this time around, prob some weird yoda-Star Wars-galactic strain that hasn’t hit the news yet.

Tested positive Monday, Saturday and this morning.

 

[road2ruin]

Through a combination of school (children), Wimbledon tennis, various summer festivals I think I probably know more people with Covid than not! Fortunately all mild and it's annoying more than anything else. Most are pleased to have it now as it means it'll be less likely that they'll have a decision to make with summer holidays on the horizon. Hoping one us gets it before Saturday as there's a family do that I'd really rather not attend.

 

[Ethan]

SILH, I think the idea of the Vaccine was that it was never going to protect against the Virus. Was it not to help recognise you had the COVID earlier and help fight against it. I think the problem being the new variants of the new Omicron variant from older variants is more transmissible. Unfortunately working in a school is the perfect cooking pot for transferring the Virus. Good that you are there to help a pal. Stay safe me man.

The vaccine won't stop the little beasties landing on you (infection) but the idea of the vaccine is to give your immunity the weapons to stop that infection becoming illness. That in turns reduces the power of any infection you can transmit. In some people your immunity won't have enough to win the battle conclusively, so you may still get illness but it will usually be much less severe.

The new variants are more transmissible, and their basic potency is not much less than alpha, but the clinical effect is massively reached by the prevalence of vaccination. As immunity were off, that potency will rise.

Over time, people will develop a more complex and effective immunity, like most have against flu, but we aren't there yet. In the meantime, the idea that this is just a cold is dangerous. The cold doesn't reach your liver, kidneys and heart and potentially damage them. Covid does.